


Black Lotus

by Chittaprrr01



Series: Black Lotus [1]
Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Fantasy, Alternate Universe - Urban Fantasy, Bullying in one chapter, Fluff, M/M, Torture in two chapters I believe but not very graphic, a lot of fluff, but I also like to make my characters suffer, kind of Gang AU, king of Science Fiction, ot21
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-16
Packaged: 2020-12-14 16:24:27
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 6,668
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21018740
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Chittaprrr01/pseuds/Chittaprrr01
Summary: In a world where he is not wanted, Hendery finds himself threatened wherever he goes. After getting saved from torture by a secret group and two of his friends, his life changes drastically. And why are his emotions going absolutely crazy when being this one person ...





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> I posted this on two other platforms already but I thought that maybe somebody here would be interested in it. It is a finished work and I am going to upload it quite fast. There is a spin-off, also finished already, that is going to be posted after this story is completely uploaded.
> 
> I hope you have fun reading this story and I would enjoy feedback from you ;D

The world was a cruel place. Wars, poverty, corruption of the governments were only the top of the iceberg. No matter what inventions had improved the life quality of the people who could afford them, for most humans, life was not as easy as they would like it to be. But dissatisfaction was the only reason people still tried to be innovative. If everybody lead a perfect life, humanity would stop evolving.  
  
Nobody had anything about the research that took place all over the globe. But there was one branch of it that nobody knew about. Hidden in the deep forests of northern Russia, a small team of scientists tried to find a way to improve life in a different way than everybody else. They didn’t want to improve medicine or the productivity of agriculture, not infrastructure or technology. They wanted to improve the human itself.  
  
It took decades until they finally found a way of improving human abilities and even more time until more progress was made. They had developed an organism similar to a virus so the distribution of it were easier as to manually change the genetics of every human. The organism was not finished yet and the scientists predicted that it would take another decade until they could finally release it. But then one night, they were not careful enough. The organism was stolen from the laboratories.  
  
Nobody knew who had done it but hoped that the thief didn’t release the virus. It was unpredictable what would happen to an infected human in this stage of the development of the organism.  
  
Their hopes were destroyed when the first cases of strange behaviour were reported all over the world. It was a very small percentage of people where the organism had caused genetic changes and most of them only had symptoms like heightened senses or an improvement in another ability. They were soon called Regulars because they had reacted to the organism like the scientists had planned. But there was an even smaller group where the genetic changes had caused more drastic abilities.  
  
The so called Irregulars reacted to the organism by developing abilities that were normally not even possible to achieve with the best technological gadgets. Their abilities came in different strengths and normally they were not used to hurt other humans but those who hadn’t reacted to the organism soon rejected them. Regulars didn’t have it easy in the society after the organism was freed but Irregulars had no other possibility to hide their powers. 

Society changed massively after the outbreak. Out of fear of the Regulars and Irregulars taking over the world with their new powers, humanity did everything to prevent that from happening even though nobody seemed to want world domination. Regulars and Irregulars received the death penalty for every little mistake they made. The amount of them was reduced drastically over the years and in the modern time they were living undercover between the normal humans to at least have a chance of a normal life.


	2. Chapter 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first real chapter. I am not sure if I am going to post this every day or every other day but please forgive me if I forget it once or twice. That happens too much currently :&

On this warm and sunny day of spring, Hendery was able to imagine hundreds of things he would rather do right now than to sit inside a dark classroom and having to listen to a teacher that was probably already too old to be teaching anybody. His voice was very monotone and Hendery had to actively try to not fall asleep every time he was in this professor’s class.

Not even his friends were with him to at least provide some form of entertainment. Well, not that he had many friends in the first place. And to call them friends was maybe also slightly too much. But Hendery liked the two acquaintances he made in the first week of the semester and was trying to be at least a little bit socially active. 

His eyes were almost closed again when the professor clapped his hands and Hendery instantly snapped out of his trance again. It seemed like the professor knew that he was incredibly boring for his students but he didn’t do anything against it besides waking his students up every ten minutes. 

Hendery couldn’t wait until the class was finally over. The worst part of his whole day would be over. There were three other classes he had to attend but these were way more tolerable than the monotonous speech he had to endure right now.

And then, in a few hours, he could finally go home, eat his dinner and spend the rest of the day in his beloved bed. Why did nobody have the idea yet to replace the desks in the classrooms with comfortable couches yet? Oh wait, then everybody would fall asleep and the purpose of university surely wasn’t to make sure the students got enough sleep. But still, Hendery thought that it would increase his life quality by a lot. 

When the bell finally signalled for the class to be over, the professor wasn’t able to say a single word anymore because all students immediately rushed out of the room to fully use their break. Hendery didn’t want to be ran over so he waited just a bit before the majority of the people were already in the hallways. Packing his stuff that he didn’t use anyway, he finally wanted to leave as well but a strong grip on his arm prevented him from doing so. When he turned around, he mentally rolled his eyes again, being not stupid enough to do it visibly.

“Look who we have here again! The weirdo from China! What were you called again? Hendry? I’m sorry, you are so unimportant that I can’t bother to remember it correctly. Why are you here again, you are so stupid you probably don’t get anything in these classes anyway. Maybe you should rather start to work, I mean you are not ugly, even if I don’t like to admit it. I’m sure you would get payed pretty good for your body.”

Hendery stared at him, completely unimpressed. It was not the first time Hyunsik told him he would be a great prostitute.

“Are you finished? I would like to leave now.” 

This only made Hyunsik more aggressive. “I tried to get rid of you for months, maybe I have to be more direct to you?”

Before Hendery could realise the meaning behind his words, he felt a sharp pain under his left eye. As much as Hendery would have liked to return a punch to the older boy’s face, he knew that he had to disappear immediately or he would regret coming to university today. And that’s why he ripped his arm out of Hyunsik’s grip and hurried out of the classroom. 

Feeling a warm liquid rolling down his cheek he knew that Hyunsik must have worn a ring with sharp edges. But he didn’t have time to worry about that now. He had to get away from Hyunsik as fast as possible. A peaceful university life was now a thing he could only dream of.

After another, slightly more tolerable, class, Hendery finally had his lunch break. It almost became a tradition for him to immediately walk to his locker, get his excess stuff inside and then walk to his “friend”’s locker. But today it was a bit different. Hendery remembered that he still had blood on his face so he took a short turn in the hallway and disappeared into the boy’s restroom. He heard one couple heavily making out in one of the stalls and some other people were also somewhere in the cabins but it didn’t matter to Hendery right now. 

He grabbed a paper towel from the dispenser, made it a bit wet and carefully wiped off the blood off his left cheek. The ring had left a bad cut and it would take weeks to completely heal. Hendery could only hope that it wouldn’t leave a scar.

By now, Hendery was really annoyed by Hyunsik’s behaviour. In all these months since university started for them, Hyunsik seemingly only had one single goal: To get Hendery to quit university. The reason was as clear to Hendery as the reason for the ability to fly of bumblebees was for scientists. He hadn’t done anything to Hyunsik that would cause him to get so determined to get rid of Hendery. And now that he became physical, Hendery didn’t want to be around him any longer, even if he had to because of the few classes they shared.

When he finally looked half presentable again, Hendery rushed out of the restroom and to the locker of his friend. He was now almost five minutes late and he didn’t want his friends to wait any longer just because he wasn’t able to block Hyunsik’s fist.

When he came in his friends sight, the latter just sighed. “So that’s what took you so long. You really should talk to an authority about this situation. Do you want to wait until he just kills you one day because he can’t control himself any more?”

Hendery slightly shook his head and looked down to the ground. “You know that I can’t do that. This whole university thing is dependent on my scholarship and if Hyunsik lies about something like this, I am never going to be able to find a good job here in Korea. ‘Suspended from university because of arguments with fellow student’, I can already read it in my file. I can’t risk it, Jun, I can’t survive without proper education. And let’s stop talking about it here in the hallways. Yangyang is probably waiting for us in the cafeteria already.”

Xiaojun just shrugged, closed his locker and threw his bag over his shoulder. He couldn’t understand Hendery at all. How could he endure all this misery without getting insane?

When thee duo arrived at the table in the cafeteria where Yangyang had already placed his things, the youngest of the three was also not happy about the scrape on Hendery’s cheek. “I can’t believe he hurt you now. Why don’t you at least let us beat him up for what he has done in the last months? And don’t come with ‘oh no, he could blame me’! We would take all blame and you would be safe again.”

Hendery sat down and shook his head. “I don’t want you to get involved with something like this. Also, don’t you think he will rather laugh at you two dwarfs trying to beat him up instead of cowering in fear?”

Yangyang stopped in his thoughts. “Well, I didn’t think about that. But I have two very tall friends that could definitely scare him away for all time!” Hendery was not impressed. 

“Yangyang, I told you not to get involved with it. Someday he will give it up and then we will all be happy again, don’t you think?”  
“If you think so, okay. But I’m sure Xiaojun agrees with me that you have to do something before the situation gets worse.”

Both looked expectingly at the oldest. He lifted one of his eyebrows while staring at Hendery. “You really think I don’t agree with Yangyang?”

And then it finally happened. The time came when Hendery was allowed to go home. His classes seemed to last even longer than normal and he was so relieved when he exited the university building. This day really was a mess. First his overly boring class in the morning, then the cut on his cheek that still stung a lot. But, he thought, now it could only get better, right?

The bus ride home only lasted about ten minutes and normally Hendery would just walk the short distance to his apartment complex. However, today he just didn’t have the nerves to do that. While on the bus, he thought about Xiaojun and Yangyang’s words again. Of course they were completely right. But Hendery had a solid reason to not do anything against Hyunsik’s actions. The problem was that he wasn’t able to just tell his friends. 

Getting off of the bus at his usual station, he had to walk another five minutes but this really wasn’t a problem considering the thirty minutes he had to walk normally when he came from university. After getting his keys out of his messy backpack, he unlocked the front door of the apartment complex and waited for the elevator to come down. Hendery lived on the eleventh floor so the stairs were not always an option. 

Just wanting to jump onto his bed and to take a nap, he searched the right key on his key chain while he was still in the elevator. The doors opened and Hendery walked through the hallway to get to his small apartment with the key in his hand but upon seeing his front door, he discovered that he wouldn’t need it anymore. 

Slightly panicked, Hendery rushed through the forcefully opened door and observed his surroundings. The shelves in his small living rooms were all been emptied out and paper was lying everywhere. The kitchen looked just like it always did and when Hendery ran into his bedroom he saw that nothing was changed there as well. He still wanted to look inside the bathroom in case the robbers or whoever came into his apartment like this had gone through his stuff there. After opening the door and finding that nobody had entered the small room, he returned to the living room to look if something had been stolen from him. 

He was still a bit confused. Why would somebody get the idea to break into a small apartment in an apartment complex with over fifty other apartments, especially one where a young university student lived in? It was not like he was in possession of some expensive jewellery or had some money stored in his small home. After going through the stuff lying on the ground he was sure that nothing had been stolen as well. But why did someone break into his apartment? And who was it?

He sighed and started to collect the papers that were shattered all around him. Most of them were just his university notes or some other unimportant stuff like recipes that he got from Xiaojun. The intruders had been really rigorous going through his things, as if they had searched something. Hendery was still clueless about what could have been so important and wished it didn’t happen. He could imagine just lying in his bed and going through his phone, relaxing. But no, some idiots had to make sure that his day was completely ruined. Hadn’t he thought that the day could only get better after he left the university building? Now he knew he was wrong. 

Suddenly, he heard a crashing sound in his bedroom. Slightly scared, Hendery stood up and made his way over to the door. When he went to his bedroom before, he was sure that there was nobody inside anymore but the sound made im doubt his observations from earlier. 

To say he wasn’t scared as hell would be a big lie. But he wanted to know if someone was still in his apartment and that meant that he had to open his bedroom door. Carefully he pushed down the handle and just when he wanted to open the door, he felt a painful hit on the back of his head and everything went dark.


	3. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope this can serve as a bit of a distraction from what happened today.

It felt like days had passed when Hendery finally regained his consciousness. Before he opened his eyes, he was trying to move his arms and legs, only to find out, that he wasn’t able to do it. Instantly his eyes opened only to be greeted with complete darkness. He couldn’t see anything around him, so it was impossible to find out where he was. After a moment, Hendery was still a bit confused about the situation but then remembered the last few minutes before he was knocked out.

  
His hopes on returning to his apartment and just proceeding with his life were shattered when he noticed why he wasn’t able to move. There were thick ropes tied around his wrists, ankles and his waist, just loose enough so he could breathe properly. Until he payed close attention to it, he also didn’t notice the piece of tape covering his mouth. Hendery sighed internally. In what situation had he been getting involved in? What did he ever do to deserve this kind of treatment? Couldn’t he just peacefully finish his time at university and lead a normal life? No, probably not.

  
The only thing he could do now was to wait until somebody talked to him to maybe explain why he was in this place. Hendery hated waiting. He just played around with the two rings on his hands, his fingers being almost the only parts of his body he was actually able to move. Since his surroundings were darker as the night, he didn’t even bother to keep his eyes open. Why should he stay awake if nobody cared to talk to him anyway?

  
Hendery completely lost his feeling for time so he guessed it took around two hours before something else happened other than the ticking of a clock somewhere in the room he was in at the moment. The lights went on and were so bright, that Hendery had to squeeze his eyes shut so it didn’t hurt too much. After a few seconds, he could eventually observe his surroundings. The ceiling was at least five meters above him and because he couldn’t see the walls in his current field of vision, he decided that he had to be in some kind of hall.

  
A few minutes later, the silhouette of an old man appeared over him. The man walked once around the surface Hendery was lying on, then stopped at the point where he started and ripped off the tape over Hendery’s mouth.

  
“Wong Kunhang, I’ve been waiting to finally meet you. My men did a very good job on taking you to me, don’t you think? I ordered them to search through your apartment to get some information beforehand but unfortunately they didn’t find anything useful. Would you like to explain why?”

  
Hendery was confused even more. Why would he have information in his apartment that would be useful for a man that he didn’t know?  
“If you tell my what you were searching for in the first place, maybe I could give you an answer.”

  
The man stopped smiling. “I’m pretty sure you know exactly what I am talking about but I am so nice that I’m going to explain it to you. Your recent activities have shown that you are involved with NCT, one of the biggest gangs of the country. We want you to tell us some information about them.”

  
Hendery frowned. NCT? He had never heard of NCT, nor of any other gang in South Korea. Why would he be involved with them?  
“Are you sure that you have the right person in front of you? I mean, you know my name, but I have never heard of NCT. I’m sure that I can’t give you the information you want to have.”

  
“Oh, really? There is no need to act like you don’t know anything. My men observed every step you took in the last two months. You openly befriended two of the gang’s members so you have to know something about them.”

  
Now he had to think. He had befriended two members of this gang? The only people he befriended in the last year were Xiaojun and Yangyang. But that would mean that these people were gang members? The man had to be wrong.

  
“Maybe you mistook them for someone else? I don’t think my friends are involved with NTC or whatever the name of the gang is.”  
The old man started walking again and stopped next to his head. “You don’t give up the acting, I see. Just so you know, I have my methods to get the information from you. Sure that you don’t want to tell me anything?”

After he denied telling the old man any information, the latter left again and the lights were turned off. Hendery was left in darkness and decided trying to sleep. He was sure that the more time he spent awake and thinking about everything that happened in the last time, he would just go insane. Although he really wanted to think about the possibility of Xiaojun and Yangyang being in one of the biggest gangs in South Korea.

  
The two just didn’t seem like people who could hurt anyone, especially killing people. That was what people in gangs did, right? Hendery couldn’t think of neither Xiaojun or Yangyang being involved in such a thing. The man he was talking to must have really mistaken them for somebody else. There just wasn’t another possibility for Hendery.

  
After eventually falling asleep, Hendery was violently woken up by the light being turned on. It hurt his eyes again and after getting used to it, the old man from before and two very young men, probably not much older than Hendery himself, appeared in his sight. The taller one of the two spoke up first.

  
“Mr. Yoon told us that you really don’t want to tell him what he wants to know. So he brought us to bring you to talk. And let me tell you, we are good at bringing people to talk.” He smirked evilly and Hendery could tell that he probably had a not so fun time before him. He would have traded out these two boys with Hyunsik immediately. But now he didn’t have the choice to do so.

  
The old man who apparently was called Mr. Yoon stepped closer to Hendery and ripped off the tape that he applied before leaving the last time. “I advise you to talk now, I’ve seen the things my boys did in the past and they were not pretty.”

  
It was not like Hendery didn’t want to tell Mr. Yoon about NCT. Well, technically, if he would have known something about them, he wasn’t sure if he had talked about it to Mr. Yoon. The man didn’t seem like somebody who would use the information for good purposes if he threatened Hendery with violence like it was something he did every day. But Hendery didn’t even have to decide whether he wanted to tell something or not. He didn’t know anything and that was the only thing he could say.

  
“Really, I have told you already. I am sure that my friends are not members of this gang you told me about. And even if they were, they haven’t told me anything about it. Why should they have? I am just an unimportant student of a regular university. I don’t come from a rich family, nor do I have any famous friends that you could want something from.”

  
Mr. Yoon sighed. “Well, you don’t want to listen, right? I guess I have to let my boys work for a bit. Seonghwa, Yeosang, you know what to do.”

  
Now Hendery was in slight panic. How could he convince Mr. Yoon that he really didn’t know anything? It seemed like he didn’t even accept ‘I don’t know anything’ as an answer so how could Hendery get himself out of this misery? He didn’t want to die yet, at only nineteen years old.

  
Yeosang took out a small knife from his back pocket and Hendery’s panic increased exponentially the closer the blade came to his skin.  
“I see you already got a cut on your face so maybe I should just start somewhere else?”

  
Knowing that the only other area of his body where his skin wasn’t covered by clothes was his arms, Hendery tried to prepare himself for the pain that was going to come soon. But nothing he did could have prepared him for the pain when Yeosang slowly pulled the knife over the inside of his arm. The cut wasn’t that deep but it bled a lot and Hendery felt dizzy as soon as Yeosang moved to the other arm.

  
Everything that happened after that was only a blur. Hendery could only remember whimpering because of the pain, before he passed out, probably from the blood he lost just now.

Hendery woke up by being slapped on his right cheek. It couldn’t have been a long time since he passed out because the two guys were still next to him with their knives. It felt like his whole body was on fire, they had added cuts on his legs as well, his torso now being the only uninjured part of Hendery’s body. Noticing that their victim had gained back his full consciousness, Seonghwa walked up to his face.

  
“Maybe you should really tell us what you know. We really aren’t the worst ones Mr. Yoon had to offer. Jongho really has a thing for ripping things in half and Wooyoung is a bit crazy in general so we are probably still quite harmless to you. But you decide when you want us to stop.”

  
While he dragged his small blade across Hendery’s already injured half of his face, the younger whimpered again, not trying to scream because of the pain. He just wanted it to stop but he knew that they wouldn’t believe him. Nonetheless, he tried again.

  
“I know you are only doing what Mr. Yoon told you to do. But I really don’t know anything.”

  
Yeosang laughed from behind Seonghwa. “You really think we would stop with our job just because you asked us to? We want this information just as bad as Mr. Yoon does. I really don’t mind calling one of the other guys so they could have a bit more fun with you. I’m sure you would like crazy Wooyoung slowly killing you. Just so you know, you are not as important to us as it seems. We have other sources that we could get information from. You just seemed like the most defenceless.”

  
Hendery didn’t know if he should feel insulted. But he definitely knew that he didn’t want to die. “This is pointless for all of us. I can’t give you information and you can’t get what you want to have. So why do you still try?”

  
Seonghwa smirked again. “He’s right, why do we even try? We should just call Wooyoung, maybe he can bring San as well. And then you wish that you were never born into this world.”

  
Hendery immediately regret what he said just a few seconds ago. He really didn’t want to die. Still in his thoughts he didn’t notice Yeosang getting onto the phone and calling Wooyoung and San into the hall where the three of them were right now. Meanwhile, Seonghwa stared at the boy lying on the table in front of him, his clothes soaked with his own blood. It was indeed not the first time he had done this kind of treatment to somebody but nobody had resisted talking to them for so long until now. Mr. Yoon was determined to get that information out of the boy but slowly, Seonghwa doubted if they had the right person. What if he really said the truth?

  
He looked over the bleeding boy again. He seemed exhausted and in a lot of pain, yet he didn’t start talking. Just a few seconds before Yeosang came back, Seonghwa noticed the two rings on the boy’s hands. They somehow looked familiar but he could think of where or when he had seen rings like this before so he was sure they had no deep meaning. And just as the door to the hall opened and Wooyoung, San and surprisingly Jongho came though it, the boy had passed out again.


	4. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just noticed that I accidentally posted the same chapter twice. Here is the real third chapter.

When Hendery woke up the next time, he noticed that the light was still turned on. Or was it again? He didn’t know how long he was unconscious. He could hear three voices that weren’t there before so he thought that they must belong to the other people Seonghwa and Yeosang told him about earlier.

They didn’t seem like they had noticedhim waking up yet so he didn’t have to panic. Still, he finally wanted to get out of this building and never come out of his bed again. How long has he been held captured by now? Maybe the people at university had already told the police that he suddenly disappeared. It was not like Hendery had anybody else who would do that. The only people he was just a bit close to were Xiaojun and Yangyang.

The lights on the ceiling hurt his eyes but it wasn’t enough to distract him from the burning of all the cuts he now had on his body. His torso was still left like it was before and he really hoped it would stay like that.

Suddenly, the lights turned off again and the boys talking a few meters away from him went silent immediately. Hendery guessed that none of them had turned the light off so maybe he somebody had come to get him out of this hellhole. Because of the tape over his mouth he couldn’t scream to get the attention of whoever just surprised the people who kidnapped him, so the only thing he could do was to wait.

The next thing he heard was a gunshot and then a loud yelp. Hendery guessed one of the guys next to him were hit somewhere where a bullet didn’t kill a human instantly but it still hurt a lot. The next gunshot went off and another one shortly after. He could hear that none of them hit their targets and he could only hope to not get hit himself. He had gotten enough wounds for now.

Everybody was yelling by now on the one hand because they couldn’t see anything so they also didn’t know who was attacking them, and on the other hand because there was no way that they could have defended themselves. The attackers could have been anywhere in the room so there was no place to hide from the bullets.

Weirdly, Hendery couldn’t hear any of the attackers voices, although he could roughly make out the amount of people that were now in the room. Together with the five people that were planning on killing him just minutes ago, he could count a bit more than ten people in the room, not counting himself in. Some of the steps were louder and some were almost inaudible so either the attackers varied in size a lot or some of them were just very far away from him and some were a lot nearer.

The gunshots still hadn’t ended and Hendery’s ears started to hurt from the loud noises. He just hoped that the attackers would let him escape out of this misery. His current situation really wasn’t good and he didn’t even know if he came far considering the amount of blood he must have lost in the last few hours or days. He couldn’t tell how much time it was, being out for probably over half of it.

Suddenly, he heard some steps coming near him faster and faster and he was shocked when somebody hovered over him with a small flashlight. But seeing who it was, Hendery almost cried happy tears. “Xiaojun”, he whispered, “you are really here. So I guess they really didn’t lie about you and Yangyang. But can you please get me out of here? My body hurts a lot.” Xiaojun took of his night vision goggles and touched the area next to the big cut on Hendery’s cheek.

“We are trying to get you out of here, of course. That’s why we are here. And yes, they didn’t lie. I’m sorry that they got you but I don’t have time to explain anything right now.”

Xiaojun put his goggles on again, switched off the small flashlight and took out a small knife to cut the ropes that tied Hendery to the table he lied on. Hendery immediately tried to move, but Xiaojun held him down. “Don’t move, it will just hurt and some of the wounds already stopped bleeding so you will only crack them open again. I will get someone to carry you out of here, just wait a minute.” And so he disappeared again into the darkness.

Hendery now had to process the information he got from his friend. Xiaojun and Yangyang really were a part of NCT, the gang these men that kidnapped him really seemed to hate. He couldn’t realise that he befriended two gang members without suspecting anything. The two were so nice, how did they got involved with something like gangs? But it was not like he was angry at them for not telling him. The situation he was in just now was showing him that it was way too dangerous for them to tell anyone. It was probably even to dangerous to make any friends without them being kidnapped for information. Hendery had to learn that the hard way.

When he felt a hand on his shoulder, he flinched but calmed down again when a deep voice whispered to him. “Hey, it’s just me, Lucas. You know, that guy that sometimes drops of Xiaojun and Yangyang in front of the university building. I’m going to carry you to our car so you don’t hurt yourself more than you already are. I try to be as careful as possible, okay?”

Hendery nodded, knowing that Lucas could see it through his night vision goggles. It was true that he remembered Lucas from dropping of his friends a few times. It was not like they had ever talked before but if Lucas was friends with Xiaojun and Yangyang and was here with them to save him, then he could definitely trust him.

It hurt a lot when Lucas lifted him up from the table but he knew that it would soon get better. Hendery still didn’t see anything and it didn’t get better when they seemingly exited the hall, the corridors were just as dark as the room they just left. Hendery had completely lost his feeling for time, hell, he didn’t even know what date it was. So he decided to just ask Lucas.

“Hey, can you tell me what date today and maybe how late it is? I really don’t know.”

“It’s the twenty fourth of March today, and when we went in here, it was around three in the afternoon. We took a while to find you but I guess it has been around an hour since then. It shouldn’t be long until we are out of this building, then you can see the daylight. It was really sunny earlier, you probably need the light after being in there for so long.” Counting the days, Hendery realised that he really was in there for a long time. One whole week had passed since he was knocked out inside of his apartment.

He had to close his eyes again when they reached the exit of the building because the sun was just too bright. He needed a moment to get used to the beams of sunlight again before opening them again. Looking around him, Hendery found the small black bus that was standing under one of the trees next to the hall. From the outside, the hall seemed like an old factory building that had been renovated to fit the new purposes of Mr. Yoon and his boys. Maybe he should ask later who they were.

Lucas opened the back door of the bus and carefully placed Hendery on the back bench before closing the door again and getting on the bench in the middle. “Are you okay like this? If I can do something for you, just ask.”

“Thank you, Lucas. I am really happy that you got me out of there.”

It didn’t take long anymore before the rest of the group came out of the old factory building. Hendery just knew Xiaojun and Yangyang, the other three he had never seen before. Xiaojun opened the back door of the car and sat next to him on the back bench, Yangyang and one of the others sat down next to Lucas and the rest sat down in the front row of the car. The one with the caramel coloured hair started the engine and started to drive in the opposite direction of the factory building where Seonghwa and one other guy were now rushing through the exit.

Hendery had never been more relieved to get away from somewhere. The time he spent in the most boring class he had every week was nothing against the time he had spent in that building. The car soon entered the steady traffic of the city and now there was no chance for the bad guys to find them again so soon.

“Xiaojun, can you tell me what happened to me and who these guys were?”, Hendery asked silently and Xiaojun shrugged.

“They call themselves Ateez and have eight members. Mr. Yoon was the one who organised your kidnapping but he is not a part of the group. They have been a problem since they came together just a few months ago and they kidnapped you because they thought we told you something about our business.”

Hendery nodded carefully. “So you really are members of this NCT gang they told me about?”

Xiaojun sighed. “Yes, we are, although we really didn’t want you to get involved in this. I’m very sorry about that. But because you are now involved in this, I should probably explain a bit more about-”

He was interrupted by the guy driving the small bus. “Don’t even try, that’s Taeyong’s job. It would be way to confusing for him now anyway.”

Xiaojun silently agreed but continued to talk. “Then I will just tell you who we all are. You already know Yangyang and me, and now probably Lucas, right?”

“Yeah, I’ve seen him a few times before.”

“Okay, so I’ll start from the back. This boy with the pink hair that looks a bit grumpy is Winwin, his real name is Sicheng, he isn’t always that grumpy and everybody loves him and you will soon see that. The black haired boy in the front is Ten, he’s from Thailand so his real name is a bit difficult to pronounce so we all just stick with Ten. Even if his height says otherwise, he is actually one of the older ones of NCT-” A small ‘Hey!’ was heard from the front. “And our driver is Kun, he is a bit like our mom especially to Yangyang so just call him mom or something like that. He always says he doesn’t like it but we all know he does. Just don’t tell him that he is old, then he will hit you.”

Hendery smiled. “Okay, I won’t do that.” He thought all of them sounded really nice. A moment later, Lucas also added something. 

“There are actually thirteen other people in NCT so don’t think it will be easy to learn all our names. But I’m sure you will like them and they will also like you. You can probably expect the older ones to baby you a lot especially while being in the condition you are right now.”

Again, Hendery nodded. That all didn’t sound so bad and after living alone for so long it surely would be good to have a bit more social interaction with people again. And to be honest, he was really scared to go back to his apartment after getting knocked out there. It was not really a place he wanted to be ever again. Still, he guessed that he would have to return to there sooner or later. This gang would surely not just let him live in their headquarters just because he got involved in some of their problems. 


End file.
